Chapter 20

I stood motionless for a few seconds with the cloth in my hand before replying somewhat awkwardly.

“Thank you very much.”

As I looked back on everything I had done up to that point, I realized I really had been throwing myself headfirst into everything without thinking too much.

But it didn’t feel like I was forcing myself.

Rather.

I was enjoying it a little.

Of course, a peaceful life without any incidents would always be the best.

But even now, I didn’t feel that bad.

I supposed it was because I was exploring, in real life, the world of a game I loved so much.

‘Besides, I’m discovering things the game never showed…’

If it weren’t for the mission of preventing my limbs from being amputated, I’d probably be enjoying it even more.

Of course, I had no intention of saying something like that.

If I did, Mo Haein would probably look at me as if I were an even bigger lunatic.

Instead of expressing what I was really thinking, I continued wiping my face with the cloth she had given me.

Seeing how much blood stained the cloth, I understood why they had considered me completely unhinged up until now.

As I stopped looking worse than a zombie, Mo Haein and Kwak Hanmuk took the opportunity to eat something as well.

Well.

Mo Haein ate a little.

Kwak Hanmuk devoured quite a considerable amount.

After swallowing a mountain of snacks, he licked his lips in satisfaction.

Despite eating so much, he didn’t even look full.

“You can eat more. There are plenty of places to get food.”

“No… I need to go on a diet…”

He muttered something while biting down on one last lollipop until it shattered.

I looked away for a moment.

When I looked back, only the empty stick remained.

He stayed crouched for a few seconds, holding the stick between his fingers with a vacant expression.

When he noticed I was watching him, he smiled and stood up.

Then he tossed the stick onto the ground and crushed it beneath his foot.

I had no idea what he was trying to do.

It wasn’t like it was a cigarette butt.

While the three of us recovered our hunger and thirst levels, Je Hyuno remained seated on top of the jeep.

Since he was already infected with the BT-Z virus, many of the Trial’s rules simply didn’t apply to him.

In Dead Zone Delivery, he didn’t need to eat or drink.

Nor could he be infected again if a zombie bit him.

If he had entered HAZPAC, he probably wouldn’t have even been able to equip the toy limbs.

So he simply waited while we finished eating.

Watching him observe us from above made me feel like an animal in a zoo.

‘I hope he finds the show entertaining.’

After making full use of Je Hyuno’s help, I honestly wanted to leave him with a good impression.

But the moment our eyes met, he began moving his metallic fingers as though he were playing a piano.

I immediately lowered my gaze.

It was better not to attract too much of his attention.

Once we finished eating and recovered, I quickly packed the backpack with the essentials.

After slinging it over my shoulder, I checked the rooftop ventilation system.

Fortunately, it was still operating on emergency power and hadn’t been damaged.

I then began the briefing for the laboratory raid.

“Our first objective will be locating the researchers who are still alive.”

The Dead Zone Delivery laboratory was a long building consisting of two underground levels and five floors above ground.

Unlike the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in HAZPAC, there weren’t several separate buildings here.

Everything was concentrated in a single facility.

The fifth floor was the most important.

That was where the high-risk pathogen laboratory was located.

The BSL-4 laboratory was the indispensable location for developing the zombie virus vaccine.

“Under normal circumstances, the surviving researcher would be hiding in a janitor’s closet on the third floor. But the situation has changed, so it’s highly likely that they’re somewhere else now.”

In the game, the last surviving researcher remained hidden inside a small janitor’s closet on the third floor.

The player gave them food to keep them alive, eliminated the zombies, and helped them reach the fifth-floor laboratory.

There, the researcher unlocked the laboratory, which had remained sealed, and began developing the vaccine.

Only then did the delivery mission truly begin.

But now there were four surviving researchers.

There was no way all of them were still hiding inside such a tiny closet.

“My guess is that they’re already in the laboratory. On the fifth floor.”

Since Je Hyuno had exterminated the zombies at the beginning of the Trial, the researchers had probably taken advantage of the opportunity to gather supplies and build barricades around the most important laboratory.

During that process, one of them had likely been attacked by a zombie that had remained hidden.

Though it was still only a hypothesis.

“Then, if we don’t find them on the fifth floor, we should also check the third.”

Mo Haein immediately added her opinion.

“Yes. Just in case. And besides locating the researchers, we also need to confirm as soon as possible whether the conditions for the True Ending are still intact.”

Since I needed to verify that part personally, I proposed what I considered the most efficient strategy.

“What do you think about splitting into two teams and advancing simultaneously?”

“Sure. We have to listen to Big Brother Goyo.”

Kwak Hanmuk was the first to agree.

Mo Haein nodded as well.

I seized the opportunity to try to decide the team composition.

‘Captain Mo and I in the same group!’

I had a good justification.

We had already worked together in HAZPAC.

Besides, Kwak Hanmuk was the most suitable person to stay with Je Hyuno in case he did something unexpected.

“Then the teams will be—”

But I couldn’t finish the sentence.

Screeeech.

An unpleasant metallic sound interrupted my words.

Je Hyuno was scratching the jeep with his metal hand.

His black wings began to move slowly.

With a soft metallic sound, the feathers folded one after another until they disappeared completely behind his back.

Then he jumped down from the jeep.

And walked straight over to stand beside me.

o o

It seemed he wanted us to go together.

I looked at Kwak Hanmuk and Mo Haein.

They were already discussing among themselves how they would conduct the search.

Apparently, they were convinced that now Je Hyuno had regained his sanity and accepted me as a teammate, he would no longer try to attack me.

Besides, considering that both of them were already quite exhausted, they probably thought he was the one best suited to protect me.

However, there was something the two of them didn’t know.

I had mentioned Zero in front of Je Hyuno.

I had unintentionally touched what was practically his greatest sore spot.

Even so, I couldn’t tell Mo Haein or Kwak Hanmuk about that detail.

I was already attracting too much attention by talking about Trial strategies and item usage.

If I stood out even more, the unspoken understanding everyone had been maintaining might collapse.

At least there was one small stroke of luck amid all that misfortune.

I didn’t have to worry about Je Hyuno telling them about Zero or about the system windows.

After all, the real problem with Je Hyuno was that he wouldn’t even say what actually needed to be said.

He wasn’t going to bother revealing that Han Goyo was an anomalous existence.

‘He’ll simply eliminate me himself the moment he considers me a threat.’

Now that he acknowledged me as a teammate, he would probably tolerate me to a certain extent.

But if I did something that truly annoyed him, he would eliminate me without hesitation.

It was enough to feel the killing intent he didn’t even try to hide.

It was even possible that he had decided to accompany me solely to find a good opportunity to do it.

‘I hope I don’t have to use Execution on Lieutenant Colonel Je Hyuno…’

With that constant concern in mind, I ended up teaming up with Je Hyuno.

We decided to meet again at the fifth-floor laboratory.

Without imagining any of the thoughts running through my head, Mo Haein and Kwak Hanmuk opened the rooftop door and disappeared down the emergency staircase to carry out their part of the mission.

Only Je Hyuno and I remained on the rooftop.

I turned to look at him.

His goggles still displayed the wide-open eyes emoticon.

He seemed ready to follow me.

“…Uh… we need to go down to the second floor.”

Walking from the rooftop to the second floor through hordes of Dead Zombies would take quite a while.

But with Je Hyuno with us, there was no reason to do it on foot.

I didn’t even have to say it.

It seemed he had thought exactly the same thing.

He took a pair of leather gloves out of his inventory.

When he put the black glove on his left metallic hand, it emitted a flash and took on the appearance of a human hand.

‘So those are the Crow Gloves.’

With one of his hands transformed into a human one thanks to the Crow Gloves, he looked a little less intimidating.

Suddenly.

He grabbed me by the back of the neck.

He sprinted across the rooftop.

And, without any warning.

Jumped into the void.

The sensation of falling knocked the breath out of me.

He descended at incredible speed and drove his metallic hand straight into the second-floor wall.

At the same time, he kicked through a window.

And threw me inside.

“Ugh!”

I almost rolled across the shattered glass, but managed to regain my balance at the last moment.

With one human hand and the other metallic one hanging casually at his sides, Je Hyuno calmly stepped through the broken window and entered the hallway.

The emergency lights dimly illuminated the corridor.

His long shadow stretched across the floor.

“Graaaagh!”

The Dead Zombies that had heard the glass shatter immediately lunged toward us.

Je Hyuno gestured with his human hand, telling me to move aside because I was in the way.

The moment I pressed myself against the wall, he swung his metallic arm horizontally.

Whoosh.

The air was sliced clean through.

Five lines cut across the zombies’ bodies.

A moment later.

Thud.

The Dead Zombies collapsed into pieces.

I immediately forgot the disrespectful thought I had when he threw me into the building.

“Thank you very much, Lieutenant Colonel Je Hyuno.”

His strengths and weaknesses were incredibly clear.

He had a terrible personality.

But he was the kind of superior who was so competent that he let you leave work early.

With a genuine smile, I obediently followed the officer who had eliminated every zombie in just a few seconds.

“This way.”

Our destination was the laboratory director’s office.

As we headed there, I stopped for a moment in front of another office.

“May I ask you a very small favor? Something truly insignificant.”

Je Hyuno looked at me as if telling me to speak.

I smiled brightly.

“Collect food.”

From the third floor onward, almost everything consisted of laboratories and analysis rooms, so most of the food was located on the first and second floors.

Now that the number of surviving researchers had increased from one to four, it was a good idea to gather supplies for them while we were already on the second floor.

Je Hyuno’s goggles lit up.

O K

‘…So they can display letters too?’

I had never known because, in the game, Je Hyuno hardly ever spoke.

As I wondered whether he could display longer messages, I entered the office with him.

Unlike the hallway, the emergency lights weren’t working there, and everything was completely dark.

But that wasn’t a problem.

I knew the exact location of every bit of food.

And Je Hyuno could see perfectly well even in the darkness.

“Third desk on the left. There’s a chocolate bar in the bottom drawer. And underneath the flowerpot on the next desk there’s a bag of gummy candies.”

I simply pointed out the locations.

Je Hyuno collected the items at incredible speed and tossed them straight into the backpack.

My only job was to hold the backpack open while following him.

‘This is so convenient…’

At first, I had been nervous about being alone with him.

But to my surprise, he was cooperating far more than I had expected.

Everything was going smoothly.

I continued taking full advantage of Je Hyuno’s incredible usefulness.

When we finished searching the office and were approaching the director’s office…

“Grrr… Grrr…”

The faint growl of a zombie could be heard.

It had probably awakened after hearing the window shatter.

But it sounded strange.

As if it were trapped somewhere.

‘But there shouldn’t be any zombies locked up on the second floor…’

I didn’t know what had changed.

Since the sound was coming from the director’s office, I quickened my pace.

The closer we got, the more, besides the growls, dull banging noises could be heard.

And also.

The sound of someone crying.

When I finally arrived in front of the director’s office.

“……”

“Goyo.”

Je Hyuno called out to me.

There was a clear trace of amusement in his hoarse, beast-like voice.

“Do you still think you can clear the Trial?”

I should have answered yes immediately to prove my usefulness.

But this time.

I couldn’t respond.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

A zombie repeatedly slammed its head against the reinforced glass door.

Its hands and feet were bound.

It even had a gag in its mouth.

It could only move its head.

And it kept smashing it against the glass over and over again.

A researcher’s ID card hung around the zombie’s neck.

I stared at it in shock.

Then I slowly lowered my gaze.

The name and photograph on the ID badge were clearly visible before my eyes.

Lee Seon

There was no doubt.

He was the researcher who was supposed to develop the vaccine.